Online Booking · updated 2026-08-08

How payment and fraud screening work for online bookings in Dumpster Controls

Online payments run through Stripe on the Dumpster Controls platform, with automatic fraud screening before any risky charge reaches your operations.

Before you start

An approved Stripe payout account

## The payment is initialized server-side
When the customer reaches checkout, the platform creates a Stripe payment for the exact total: your invoice amount plus the processing fee share defined by your "Processing Fee Strategy". The minimum online order is $10 (the server rejects smaller totals with "The minimum order amount is $10."). The card is saved securely so future extra charges, such as overweight fees, can be billed to the same card.
## The charge is screened for fraud
Every payment is evaluated with Stripe Radar plus an internal risk score. Legitimate payments are captured normally. The highest-risk payments are declined before any money moves: the customer sees a neutral "Payment Not Authorized" screen stating "For security reasons, we were unable to authorize this payment. Your card was not charged.", and no order is created.
## Borderline payments are held for review
Suspicious but not clearly fraudulent payments can be held for manual review by the Dumpster Controls team. A held order stays invisible to your operations (no invoice, no dispatch task) until it is approved; if approved, the payment is captured and the order is released with the note "Approved after risk review".
## Money and records are created
On a successful charge, the platform creates the order, a paid invoice (numbered ORD- followed by six characters) with a line item describing the dumpster and dates, and the payment record with the full fee breakdown. Your payout comes later through the standard payout flow when the order completes.

What happens next

The customer's receipt email comes from Stripe (receipt email) and Dumpster Controls sends its own confirmation email and SMS with an invoice link.
Card data is never stored on Dumpster Controls servers; the booking page footer documents that payments are processed by Stripe.

Troubleshooting

A customer was declined but insists the card is fine.

The "Payment Not Authorized" screen means the platform declined the authorization for security reasons; the card was not charged. The customer can contact support from that screen. This is deliberate fraud protection, not a card error.

The customer paid but I do not see the order yet.

If the payment was held for manual risk review, the order stays hidden until the review completes. Orders from approved payments appear immediately in Operations and Dispatch.

Related guides

Frequently asked questions

Is Dumpster Controls really free?

Yes. The software is free: dispatch, online booking, the driver app, invoicing, the Tresha AI assistant and every other feature, with no monthly fee, no trial period and no credit card to sign up. The only cost on the free plan is optional card processing when a customer pays by card through the platform: 2.99% plus $3.99 per transaction on the free plan. An optional Unlimited plan at $169 per month lowers that to 2.99% plus $0.30. Prices as published on dumpstercontrols.io/pricing on 2026-09-23.

Do you charge per driver, per truck or per order?

No. There is no per-driver, per-truck, per-user or per-order fee, and no order limit. A company with one truck and a company with twenty pay the same for the software: nothing.

Is there a contract?

No. There is no contract, no minimum term and no setup fee. You create the account yourself, and on the free plan there is nothing to cancel because nothing is billed. The optional Unlimited plan is billed month to month.

Which countries and languages are supported?

Dumpster Controls serves hauling companies in the United States and Canada. The app interface and the Tresha AI assistant are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The public pages, such as the blog, the help center and the landfill finder, are in English.

How do I switch from another dumpster software?

Create a free account at dumpstercontrols.io/login, with no sales call and no credit card. Then import your customers from a CSV file using the template provided in the app; past orders can also be imported from a CSV. Container sizes and pricing are set up in Settings. The landfill database, with 1,750 active US and Canadian landfills as counted on 2026-10-01, is already loaded, so disposal sites do not need to be typed in. Step-by-step guides are at dumpstercontrols.io/help.